With the news of Charlie Rose’s sexual misconduct coming to light, and his subsequent dismissal from CBS This Morning and suspension from his eponymous PBS show, the internet has been rushing to pat itself on the back and say “John Oliver called it!” by posting Last Week Tonight clips that show the absurd sexual tension on CTM.

But as a person who watched CTM every morning until my daughter came along three years ago, I can tell you that fans of the show were well aware of the sexual banter between Rose and co-anchor Gayle King. And I’ve got to say: Sometimes it was so creepy it put me off my morning bagel and cream cheese, and I’m sure many people felt the same.

Let’s face it: when we watch the morning news, we want three things: 1) The weather, 2) Noise in the background and 3) The weather. If we learn something along the way as we struggle to get our kids ready for school and drink a massive cup of coffee, we’re ahead of the game. CTM stood out because it actually talked about topics in the news; it didn’t do cooking segments or deal in silly gossip or investigate the latest case of a missing blonde co-ed. It talked about the issues of the day, and even the celebrity features were in-depth and informative.

Which is why the sex talk was always so jarring.

It would almost always start with Gayle, single and ready to mingle, saying something off the cuff that was vaguely sexual. Then Charlie would pick up on it, his dark eyes brightening at the prospect of openly flirting with his co-anchor on the air, something he couldn’t really do when he’s interviewing the Secretary of the Interior on his PBS show. Then Norah O’Donnell would generally give a smirk, maybe mock fan herself, and then try to move on to the next story.

Most of the time, we felt like Norah: wholly uncomfortable and ready to move to the next story. There was just something about Rose’s side of the banter that didn’t feel light and flirty; it always felt serious, like he was ready to take Gayle into his office and lock the door as soon as the cameras turned off. It’s not unlike the sexual harrassment exhibited by fictional CTM anchor Jane McCabe (Margaret Colin) towards Dan Egan (Reid Scott) in VEEP.

One thing we don’t want with our morning news is sexual tension, especially heavy and creepy sexual tension. And CTM had it in droves. As great a newsman as Charlie Rose was, his presence on the show made things vaguely uneasy. Maybe with his departure, new blood will come in and keep things all business. Now someone just needs to tell Gayle to keep things professional, and we’ll be all set.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.